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Bibliographical Information

In the 1859 (first edition) single-volume edition the elegant Frontispiece appeared as the initial illustration, but in
fact had already appeared in the final instalment, in April, illustrating a brief inset
narrative in Chapter LXXV, "The Convent of St. George." This same chapter appeared as
Chapter XXXIII in the second volume of the Chapman & Hall two-volume edition of 1872
(re-issued in 1901 by Little, Brown & Co., Boston).

“Will [Conway] live, do you think?” said Terry, with a gesture of his
thumb to indicate him of whom he spoke.

“No; impossible,” said Classon, confidently; “he stands in the report fatally wounded,
and I have it confidentially that there's not a chance for him.”

“And his claim dies with him?”

“That's by no means so sure; at least, we'd be all the safer if we had his papers,
Master Driscoll.”

“Ay!” said Driscoll, knowingly.

“Now, which of us is to do the job, Driscoll? That's the question. I have my claim
to see him, as chaplain to the — I 'm not sure of the name of what branch of the service
— we'll say the 'Irregular Contingent' Legion. What are you, my respected friend?”

“A connection of the family, on the mother's side,” said Terry, with a leer.

“A connection of the family!” laughed out Classon. “Nothing better.”

“But, after all,” sighed Terry, despondingly, “there's another fellow before us both, —
that chap had brought out the news to the camp, Mr. Reggis, from the house of Swindal
and Reggis.”

“He's cared for already,” said Classon, with a grin.

“The Lord protect us! what do you mean?” exclaimed Driscoll, in terror.

“He wanted to find his way out here last night, so I bribed two Chasseurs d'Afrique to
guide him. They took him off outside the French advance, and dropped him within five
hundred yards of a Cossack picket, so that the worthy practitioner is now snug in
Sebastopol. In fact, Driscoll, my boy, I'm — as I said before — an ugly antagonist!”

Terry laughed an assent, but there was little enjoyment in his mirth.

“The girl, — one of those hospital ladies,” continued Classon, — “a certain Miss
Kellett, is also a prisoner.”

“She's in safe hands this time, let her be as cunning as she will. In fact, my dear
Driscoll, the game is our own if we be but true to each other.”

“I 'm more afraid of that girl than them all,” muttered Driscoll.

“Look over those hills yonder, Driscoll, and say if that prison-house be not strong
enough to keep her. Mr. Reggis and herself are likely to see Moscow before they visit
Cheapside. [Chapter LXXV, "The Convent of St. George," pp. 647-648]

Ironically, one of the last monthly illustrations (that in which the
Cossacks capture the attorney who has been representing Charles Conway in his legal
action to regain the Lackington title and estates), serves as the frontispiece for the
novel, as readers who purchased the single-volume edition issued in April 1859 would not
have encountered the passage realised in the elegant plate until almost the end of the
book. Even as the four Russian horsemen encircle the hapless attorney and two of them
prod him with their lances, the two French cavalrymen ("two Chasseurs d'Afrique") whom
Classon has bribed turn back in their saddles from the hillside above to survey the
action. Through this scene of bribery, betrayal, and military action on the lines between
the adversaries in the Crimean War Phiz and Lever set the keynotes for the novel.
Adroitly, Phiz has fused two disparate plot lines — the question of the Lackington
inheritance and the events in the Crimea which feature Jack Kellett, Sybella Kellett, and
Charles Conway. Phiz treats the third plot element, the collapse of Davenport Dunn's
financial empire, in the title-page vignette.

Lever actually presents the incident in flashback, having the duplicitous "Holy Paul"
narrate what happened to Conway's lawyer to demonstrate what fate Terry Driscoll can
expect if he attempts to cheat Classon out of his share of the spoils of the Lackington
estates. Operating as the agent for his companion in travel and crime, Driscoll, Classon
has betrayed Charley Conway's lawyer in order to prevent Conway from claiming the
estates of Viscount Lord Lackington, although he has already successfully prosecuted his
claim to the title. As the next male heir in the line,
Driscoll would then be able to claim the title and English estates for himself. Classon's
strategy includes stealing any of Conway's papers that support his case, but it fails
when the smooth villain finds himself trapped in Conway's room at the Convent of St.
George in the Crimea, and Reggis appears. This critical scene had already occurred in the
penultimate instalment of the novel, "Holy
Paul" in a Fix (March 1859).